Underwood No 5

Quite a while back, one of my friends sent me a photoshopped picture of an old typewriter (it looked like a Remington) fitted with a monitor, mouse, and printer (the printer had the platten and carriage attached to it). I looked to see if true retrofit would be possible, but, at the time I researched the possibility, Mini-ITX motherboards were not yet available.

I stored the picture in my archives and pretty much forgot about it. After I had completed an Apple IIe retrofit, I sent a picture of it to my friends. One of them sent a link to this website.

I looked through all of the unusual mods and came across a mantle clock mod. The clock was from the 20s or 30s and it got me thinking about the possibility of doing a typewriter mod. I pulled the picture out of my archives and did some measurements. It would work.

I really didnt want to nuke one of my good typewriters (I collect vintage typewriters). The only No. 5 I had was one which started my collection. I looked on eBay and found a couple of non-working No. 5s. Well, one of the non-working No.5s was actually a No. 3 and needed to be re-sprung and oiled up (it was one of the few made in Canada, so it was NOT coming apart) before it typed flawlessly. The other, was a No. 5 and had better chrome than my original. A couple of unbent typebars, and a few shots of oil, later, it worked better than my first No. 5. I didnt have the heart to take either eBay purchase apart. I looked on eBay for old typewriter frames and found one guy selling typewriter keys, who agreed to look for one of his old frames. When he realized I was in Canada, he did not want to send it to me (too much hassle and too much for shipping). I decided that I would be taking apart my original No. 5.

Now that the Underwood retrofit is done, Im quite glad that I took apart my original No. 5.